the program costs more than $1.5 billion last year alone. up from $800 million in 2008. it is tacks onto your phone bill. that is my "two cents more". we will see you back here tomorrow night. ♪ ♪ lou: evening, everybody, it has been an extraordinary day in politics and news, two principal questions loom large over all of the days events and developments in the political economy. why was adequate security denied the u.s. consulate in benghazi. the question remains, and why does the administration continue to carry out a political cover-up of the terrorist attack that results in the deaths of u.s. ambassador, christopher stevens and three other americans.

in washington, it seems that many americans believe that every bureaucracy and agency in washington is either politicized , incapable, or simply dysfunctional, the result is rising distrust of the government. today, the numbers in our government labored upon the report created suspicion, uncertainty, and a new dimension of mistrust. weekly jobless claims came in with low expectations the president once again asserting that the tax code is designed.

in other words from the man was shot in the head and neck if he commuted to work in yemen. we will have the latest developments tonight. the latest in a series of incredible statements by stephanie cutter. touching on the tragedy in benghazi. carter's rationale for why the murder of our ambassador and three other americans has become the subject.

>> in terms of the politicization of this, we are in the debate. but the entire reason, it is because of mitt romney and paul ryan. it is reckless and irresponsible lou: politics, terrorism, the economy, we cover it all with a host of experts and inside analysts. republican national committee chairman reince priebus joins us, white house chief of staff, john sununu joins me and political insiders, chris stirewalt, taking a look at the polls and analyzing the importance of tonight's vice presidential debate. the administration continues to resist, if you will, to be forthcoming about what has transpired in benghazi. the president today reasserting the existence of a tax loophole designed specifically for outsourcing.

>> after running for more than a year in which he called himself severely conservative, mitt romney is trying to convince you that he was merely kidding. now, what does he have to say, this new version about mitt romney of all the things he has actually promised to do as president? tax breaks for outsourcers. never heard of such a thing. lou: the tax code says that companies ccn claim deductions. thank you for being with us. this is an interesting debate. congressman ryan, youthful, energetic, and command of the budget, and, of course, the vice president, who is affable and he is gregarious, and by all

accounts, a good debater. >> i think you have accurately summarize what i think is true. i think that you have two genuine and authentic guys that are experienced in different ways. i think that joe biden, you know, he has been debating for a long time, for decades. he is a product of washington, he has been around the block him and i think that he is going to be ready to go and i think is going to try to make up a lot of ground barack obama in his belly flop of last week. it will be an interesting week. there is no doubt about it. we are going up against a master debater. lou: the fact is, we were told a considerable the considerable discussion on the part of vice presidents are very

important. what is your reaction to that? >> well, you know, the entire thing, the reason the entire issue is a political issue -- i mean, what stephanie is saying is discussing an appalling. it is the type of thing the campaign, with an apology on

television, and that is what she owns the governor after saying that. lou: can you imagine what her family feels? >> what these families feel? it has taken political advantage two-point which makes her credible. it is more demeaning to her. she is only making herself look bad. they are going to bring america together. what a joke that they have become. it is unbelievable. lou: the campaign press secretary general says that your demand or injustice department investigation of campaign fund-raising on administration

is an absurd basis of fact. >> yes, why do that, you know? they claim that they were going to be the most transparent presidency in the history of mankind. i actually look at what is happening on this website this is the way they operate, this is the demeaning of the american people by not talking about issues, calling their opponents liars, talking about big bird, by blaming the unfortunate and sad situation in libya and putting it entirely on the backs of mitt romney and paul ryan, you didn't write this stuff, lou lou: reince priebus, good to have you with us. vice president of the republican

national committee. more on the election coming up throughout this jampacked hour. more suspect numbers. this time a surprise drop in jobless claims falling to last week's drop in the unemployment rate. wild swings in government figures becoming commonplace. and they are not the only suspect numbers. how about the polls? that is tonight's "chalk talk." who are you going to trust? and governor romney hasn't had a bad day in the polls since the overwhelmingly good win since the debate. now comes the first and only vice presidential debate. who will win? we will have ron christie and chris stirewalt, to political savants on what will happen with the spark cash card from capital one,

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lou: the polls have been kinder governor romney since he won last week's first presidential debate. vice president biden will try to return some momentum to team obama tonight. ron christie and chris stirewalt, as i said, acacias savants on all things politics will be here. first, a look at the markets today and a lot happening. the dow jones down, the s&p squeezing a rational being, the s&p, down fractional point. the nasdaq hurt by a fall on shares of apple down 2% today. the market cap of apple dropping down to just under $589 billion. and they call themselves a corporate leader. crude oil is up. ninety-two dollars per barrel. bank stocks mostly higher today. earnings reports into the very biggest wells fargo and jpmorgan chase, going different directions, wells fargo stopped down, tomorrow, news on consumer

confidence and producer prices. turning back to the campaign trail, vice president biden, congressman ryan, such a debate in just over an hour. congressman ryan looking to maintain the resounding victory of mitt romney from last week. joining me now is the former special assistant to george w. bush, chris christie and digital politics editor for boxes, chris stirewalt. this debate tonight, it seems that we make much of these debates. but to skeptical? >> that is probably skeptical enough. but, lou, that the matter is that this time that's happened, and inconsequential moment, not only -- lou: there you go, we have inconsequential moment. >> we have inconsequential moment that changes everything.

is he going to move out to a substantial lead? is this race going to stay tied? is the president were to reassert himself? right now what joe biden is trying to trying to do and demonstrates the democrats are very unhappy with the president's performance, this ticket will attack and each brought their and because of what democrats are feeling, he needs to get them fired up and he needs to go take me ask the paul ryan. lou: one of the things that has occurred since the debate last week, first, there is the question about -- well, there was no question that he had just won the stage up with president obama. then there would be a balance, balance in the polls if he dominated the evening. then the bounce came, and then the question was if there was a bounce, how big will it be, and then it turns out it is enormous. and then here we are in the next week, it is still rolling, the governor hasn't had a bad day in the polls ends, and we are

watching an extraordinary reversal of fortune. >> we really are, lou. i was out in colorado yesterday. a lot of this folks i spoke to yesterday are obama supporters, they sat down, and they watched the debate and they were appalled by the president's lack of preparation and the manner on the stage and they said that we can't have four more years of this. the conventional wisdom is debates don't really matter until they really do matter. and they do matter now. paul ryan is going to go out and make the case as to why governor romney and he should be the president and vice president. the sitting vice president has a tough road ahead. because you can't really attack their favorability. lou: the favorability ratings for the vice presidential nominee, congressman ryan, he stands tall next to the vice president. a 51% unfavorable rating.

basically, is that a baseline test for him? is that the ultimate bar? to make governor romney look good and having chosen him and get out of the way after that? do you think, chris? >> yes, and one other thing. yes to look like someone that people feel comfortable stepping in and the president of the united states. lou: deeming like everybody feels about joe biden? [laughter] >> he is only 42 years old. [laughter] needs to look like he is someone who can step in. i think this is a more important tax for paul ryan tonight. joe biden is not a widely respected figure. better numbers their show. four years ago he was a highly respected -- they liked figure. but the four years have been very hard in the public eye and have taken a serious toll on

him. tonight, though, paul ryan faces a guy still be warm and have a charming way about him. paul ryan has to make sure that he doesn't get out politician on that stage. lou: it is also another thing to me. he loves to talk about the deficit and the budget. the fact is, i wonder if there is a line between his energy and his enthusiasm and some constraint and the desire for most of us to hear and speak about other topics as well. and to do so with fresh and new language. can he overdo the youthful enthusiasm and what could quickly become under budget, a johnny one note approach? >> i think he can. i have known him for 20 years. he is very funny and very

intelligent. he is more than a one-dimensional budget geek. he needs to do the exact same thing that governor romney them. show a warm and different side of the personality. they win by doing that. lou: ron christie, chris stirewalt, thank you. up next, it appears to be open season on our embassy in the middle east. the latest on the terrorist attack and murder of the chief of security for the u.s. embassy in yemen. and things looking somewhat suspect over at the labor department. what is going on with this government? you know, i will tell you right now, it's not a conspiracy. but man, it sure does look like incompetence. by the way, what about public trust? the "chalk talk" is coming up next

lou: some people are crying conspiracy and others are saying that it is just plain incompetence. darrell issa, house oversight committee chairman, on last weeks dramatically improved unemployment rate of 7.8%. >> it is not exactly a science as it needs to be and there has to be a better way to get those numbers are not good.

today we learned weekly jobless claims held by 30,000 this week. down 30,000, and i mean the backup market attention. dropping down to 339,000 in the market -- the market rejoiced. a labor department spokesman admitted that they had some volatility in the numbers and they weren't entirely sure. the market teams began almost immediately to a road. what does it all mean anyway? the previous week's figure was revised to show 2000 more applications, and by the way, and that is an infrequent occurrence. it is part of the reporting process. in fact, it means that we have seen a previous week upward revision, in fact. are you ready for this? eighty-three out of 84 weeks. that is an unprecedented stretch of revisions.

in eight out of the past 12 quarters, revision. it was revised drastically lowered down to 1.3%. from the previous estimate of 1.7%. and that is the kind of stuff that investors are becoming increasingly leery about, distrustful, the markets themselves and the regulators are they are regulated. the exchanges that are regulating in behalf of the investors that they once had in

the marketplace. the retail investors have gone away. in part because of high frequency trading. 70% of the total trading that you wanted to talk about, is high frequency trading. 10%, and by the way, we can't get anybody to talk about it about why this is so important to permit and no one seems to want to talk about or even discuss, and certainly not in washington dc, the fact that many of these high-frequency firms are colocated with the exchanges themselves, and inn3 some cases, the ownership classes and you see what i mean. or is a little problem.

3.67 billion shares traded today. the s&p is dropping 2.5% in the same. not a year ago. so far, on the bad news, they have been right. what does it mean for investor trust? well, joining me now to assess what is going on, fox business editor liz macdonald. these numbers are just -- how the world is a retail investors must make their way through this? when the world is going on that we can't rely on agencies that were once never perfect? >> that is right. i was always something. what the government is trying to measure a gigantic economy. the civil servants are working

hard at this. a number of different administrations, 83 out of 84 have been questioned by wall street analysts. earlier in the year, they advise the analyst is as they don't look at the weekly revisions. use again the four-week moving average, which we are seeing in those numbers, 362,000, that is the lowest drop -- the biggest drop in about six months. that tends to smooth out and knock out things, rather than temporary automotive factory shutdowns and the like three. lou: what we saw smooth out they were those indexes. the markets. the markets are just rebelling. we watched today, and the professional money in there. let's be very clear about this. these are the professionals going back, saying that we don't want the numbers on earnings, we don't like what we are seeing along the bottom of this market, and we don't like the fact that we get a big number in the morning from the labor

department and we find out later that it is highly suspect. >> then we also had white nose and static. california is now saying, wait a second, we did file the claims data with u.s. government. but the perspective is getting lost in here. and that is since world war ii, the u.s. gdp growth has averaged about 3.3%. but that counts 11 recessions since then. since the recovery, supposedly took off in 2009. i say supposedly because government statisticians that i talk to still stiller basically looking very hard at the gdp revision. the economy has averaged about 1.3 or 1.5% average growth, again, that 3.3% since world war ii, if you knock out those recessions, it's actually 4%.

lou: okay, and you know what i think? by the time i heard those numbers from the commerce department, the labor department, let's be honest. we don't even know where we are with these earnings right now. we know what we are looking at is a way of a trend. is there any possibility in your judgment that we are not looking at the prospect of a correction at this point in this market? >> i think so. basically the jobless rate you should be looking at is 11.6%. the people have basically dropped out of the workforce and i have to tell you something, whether or not we get to see a correction in the market, it also depends again on very important economic data, again, we may not hear that we were in the recession actually at this point in time until months down the road. the official arbiters of that, for example, they waited until july 2003.

lou: we will talk with you again very soon. for weeks to go into election day, what the heck are you kidding me? we will take that up with the a-team and a lot more. our numbers are closer than the government. we are coming right back. >> the vice presidential debate. they say it is time to let joby joe. are they sure about that? >> thank you, doctor pepper, and chancellor -- -- [laughter] lou: good luck with that. john sununu joins us next. and debbie wasserman schultz is a never ending string of the unexpected. the unreal, the untrue. which doesn't necessarily mean it is false.

>> well, that doesn't mean it was false. >> what? lou: let's try that one more time. >> well, that doesn't mean it was false. lou: it's not you, it is her. we have the video to prove it. governor romney surging in poll after poll what was once obama territory. now uncharted territory for both candidates. the swing states are swinging. the "a-team" is here to bring it all into balance with considerable fairness as well. bob...

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and effective speaker. but his ideas are the long ones and joe understands that. lou: well, there you are. seeing governor john sununu joins us. good to see you, governor. [laughter] >> listen, i think in the debate last week, both president obama and mitt romney took that advice. people saw mitt romney being mitt romney, and they saw the president struggling as president obama. it is good advice. >> that is a strange thing coming off the worst defeat in presidential debate in history. he starts offering advice to his vice president. >> remember, he thought got the first day that he had one. so he is self delusional and at last a long time.

>> how important is this debate tonight? you know, the vice presidential debates that i recall, with some enthusiasm, were terrific to watch. they had sparkly moments, but they didn't amount to a doggone thing in the outcome. >> every piece of the campaign is important. i do understand there is probably going to be a mix of foreign and domestic policy, and i think as the foreign policy goes, some of the current issues, certainly, that fiasco, the terrible tragedy in libya has got to be a part of the discussion. maybe they will even get into talking about -- i cannot imagine what they are trying to do.

lou: it extends to come as we said come, at the outset of this broadcast, two questions frankly over arching the entire day's developments of news and politics and the economy. one question remains and will persist until it is entered. he was responsible for denying adequate security to the u.s. consulate and mendacity. and why is this administration reluctant to be forthcoming with all of the information necessary to get to those answers? >> well, lou, there is a reason behind all this. and that is because the administration has, for the last 14 or 15 months, of the campaign, and trying then trying to tell america that there is no more power and strength, but they have taken care of everything. certainly, the travesty of what

happened in libya and across north africa has put a line in that. this is a travesty to not have security in probably the most dangerous political post assignment that any embassy staff and ambassador have. that is the kind of thing that can only be the result of the top not paying attention. lou: governor romney and governor ryan have great affection in all matters dealing with this. he has to go well beyond that tonight.

he can't let joe biden do it the president always does. governor johnson, good to have@ your. >> thank you. lou: up next, the world's most popular search engine and not so popular with the romney campaign today. google. what are they trying to do? give the daily show will run for their money? that story is next. coming up tomorrow, prominent business owners and ceos eking out against another four years of the obama administration's economic policies. ceo david siegel among our guests tomorrow. ambassador john bolton, and

psychologist jeffrey gardella. he joins us to get into the minds of these candidates in these closing days. we are coming right back ♪

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lou: obama campaign officials in denial about the campaign issues. >> if you look at the recent polls, it is roughly the same as where was that before the debate. i think that romney did okay, but it is essentially the same. lou: and another person saying that the polls will go up and go down, so far so good. at the end of the day, the polls don't matter. work harder than you ever have, dig in, make the calls, knock on the doors.

>> maybe there is a little place they can save money on the campaign. a new investor business daily poll showing governor romney opening up a five-point lead over president obama. new allegations tonight, google has a left-wing bias, the issue, , completely wrong in terms of a full page of pictures in terms of governor romney. google is blaming it on the algorithm. since the algorithm is what they do. the governor, as we said, was completely wrong when he said 47% of americans were victims dependent on government. it is the algorithm. florida's state board of education and controversy, setting standards based on race.

if calls for 90% of asian students to be at or above grade level at a reading by the level. 88% for whites, 81% of blacks are expected to be there, within six years. it is sort of a preselection race. it is stunning. it is met to set realistic and attainable goals, which means setting goals and insulting people at the same time. hard to do, but there it is an education in florida. up next, after last week's debate performance by governor romney, can the presidentsteer clear of even more damage o reelection efforts? the "a-team", monica crowley, jedediah bila, judith miller, heading our way with the

answers. i mean all of the answers. 0t[h7

lou: joining me now is the "a-team", author and radio talkshow hosts, monica crowley. author of the book outnumbered, jedediah bila, and pulitzer prize-winning journalist, judith miller. judy, let's begin with you. yemen in the attack that killed the head of your security and the u.s. embassy there. this is getting worse. >> it is getting worse. this is a veteran employee. he had been the liaison between the yemeni security and the americans for a long time.

this is a guy who should have known and would have been careful about security. it means that it is probably al qaeda and the arabian peninsula have. they ambushed him. you never saw it coming. it just means that this evil, islamism, militant islamism is spreading. we are going to be targeted and we have to be ready. lou: obviously we have not been ready for americans. those were murdered americans, not sure why security was denied in benghazi, we have not learned why this administration will not give answers. it is beginning to look like a cover-up. because there is so much stonewalling. there is this pretext of using the fbi. this is looking very bad for this administration at the time when it doesn't need to look any

worse. twenty-seven days to the election. >> i worked for richard nixon during the last four years of his life. we had long conversations about watergate. they begin impeachment proceedings for his life, in which it was a case where nobody died. so we have a campaign of lies and deceit and cover-up based on a national security issue, in which four americans lie dead, including two navy seals, an embassy staffer, and the personal representative of the president of the united states, the u.s. ambassador. now, that could change come but so far, the press has been reticent to pursue this. again, that may change, but so far, -- [talking over each other] >> barack obama is out there saying and tweeting that al qaeda has been decimated. how he can do that given the circumstances that are going on

right now, means that he is completely unaware or he is lying to people to convince them that he has been a foreign-policy success. it is only one of the two. lou: this is just crazy. lives have been lost and people don't have answers the parents of some of these people are saying that these answers -- give us the answers. i'm tired of being stonewalled. lou: i said to reince priebus, i can't even imagine what those families are feeling with what stephanie cutter saying, a representative of the president of the united states be mapped now we know that sean smith's mother, a current service officer was killed, came out and said that i just want to know the truth. you know, i was given something

that wasn't true. a statement by the president, by susan rice, by leon panetta. i want to know the truth. lou: did you not find it interesting that the president did not deny that. they know that we will give her something better? better than what she is asking for? my goodness, it had to be the truth from the moment she arrived. >> the politicizing of this is happening. it is insulting to intelligence and family members who have lost their sons read you know what, the bigger issue is, attacking governor romney, he is not the commander-in-chief yet. the bigger issue is that it has been his policies that have led to the middle east being like this. you talk about the chief of security in yemen, the enemy is now emboldened because of the pursuit of this president. lou: we should be very clear that the mother is saying, accusing the white house and the

president, about lies -- which is a campaign strategy on the part of the obama folks. it is a grieving mother's words to the white house, the president of the united states. very quickly, we have seen this race now move -- we have 26 districts. we have 11 senate seats that are tossups. the president of the united states now just a whisker ahead of governor romney. in the electoral college. >> we saw a phenomenal rate by governor romney. lou: people say that one debate does not matter. >> well, it matters -- that matters. [talking over each other] lou: thank you all so much. up next, only two explanations

for the administration's incompetence in benghazi. we will have that for you next. ally bank. why they're always there to talk. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine can't give you what a person can. that's why ally has knowledgeable people there fally bank.ght and day. your money needs an ally.

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neil lou: time for comments, ken wrote me on facebook, saying evama has alwaysrun from